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Updated: 03/07/2009 | 04:13 PM IST

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Raghu Dayal

Friday, July 03, 2009 (New Delhi)

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This is a budget which appears to be a case of old wine in old bottle! There are several announcements made in the budget which have been spoken about for the last few years. There is nothing new about these announcements.

It would have been good to hear the Railway Minister announce steps to make sure that time bound implementation of the projects take place. Sadly, that is missing.

The freight corridor is being talked about for several years now. It has not achieved financial closure and still the Railway Minister thinks that it is appropriate to make an announcement regarding the freight corridor.

The 1000 megawatt power plant to be built alongwith NTPC, for example, has been spoken about in the past. We are nowhere closer to implementing it and the announcement continues to be made.

The need for world class railway stations began with a list of 22 stations. The only difference that has happened from the past is the number has now touched 50. An example of how well we are doing on the implementation side would buttress my point. The tenders for the modernisation of the New Delhi railway station were to have been finalised a year ago. We are still struggling with it and now there is some talk of a retender. China built world class stations in three yeras and all we have managed to do is talk about our intent during the last few years.

How can the Railway Minister announce more trains, faster trains and long distance non-stop trains when tracks in select sectors are being used at 130-140 per cent of their capacity? There are 14-15 private train operators who are functioning in the country now. They are crying ebcause of stagnation. Tracks and terminals are desperately required by them. If we want them to expand, we will have to.

Less than 35 per cent of the freight of the country is carried by railways. We need to make sure that we set stiff targets every year so that the share of the traffic being carried by railways increases every year. Globally, rail networks are carrying increasing trafffic and there is no reason why India should not do the same.

In my opinion, Railway Ministers should not make any announcements and focus on the implementation, instead. For that matter, I see there is little reason why there should be a separate railway budget too. You do not require the Railway Minister to make sure that things start working. His job is to give direction to the rail network and not focus on the nitty gritty issues. That job should be left to the managers in the field.

(As told to Ashutosh Sinha)